24 Hours
by sweetcrimefighter
Summary: Bella Swan is told she only has 24 hours to live. How will she react and what will happen when she runs into a certain vampire? Based on the song 24 by Jem. Please read, thanks.
1. The countdown begins

_**A/N: Story based on the song 24 by Jem. Also, for the purpose of this story, Bella is not Edward's singer, it would make things too complicated in the short amount of time this story will take place. It will be about 24 chapters, I think. Maybe 25, I don't know. Enjoy.**_

**24 Hours**

_**In 24 hours they'll be  
laying flowers  
on my life, it's over tonight  
I'm not messing no I  
need your blessing  
and your promise to live free  
please do it for me **_

_**24 by Jem**_

*******

**Chapter 1: The countdown begins**

It was around midnight when I finally got of work - I worked weekends in a restaurant in Port Angeles, near my hometown Forks; I was working overtime tonight. I said a quick goodbye to Angela, my best friend and colleague, grabbed my bag and coat and went on my merry way.

It was storming when I walked outside, lighting and thunder roared in the skies and rain was falling down with a vengeance. I hated the rain and couldn't wait to get to my car as soon as possible - it was parked about 10 minutes away from the restaurant. It was rather ironic that I hated the rain, since I lived in Forks, which was the most rainy town in the history of the US.

I was glad I had my raincoat on and some protection against the fierce weather. I began walking my way to my car. It was 10 past time when it happened - I clearly remember the time because I had just looked at my watch.

It came out of nowhere, the lightening, I didn't even have time to blink as it struck me and send me flying to the curb. Of all the people in the world, I had to be the one to get struck by lightening. I really was the most unlucky person in the entire world - it was as if the world wasn't satisfied until it killed me. It was bad enough that I was the biggest klutz imaginable, but I also seemed to have some weird attraction to danger. I had no idea why that was.

After the lightening struck me, and I had fallen down, I felt like I was floating; it was the most liberating experience I had ever had. There were no worries where I was - no concern for Charlie, my father - no feelings of hurt as I thought of my mom who left me when I was just a baby - nothing. I was free.

The feeling didn't last long, however, as I felt something shock me back into existence. I had no idea what it was, but next thing I knew, I was being rushed to the hospital. Apparently no more than 5 minutes had passed before Angela found me and called 911.

So now here I was, lying in a hospital bed in the ER, hooked to all sorts of machines, waiting for a doctor to come and tell me what kind of damage I had brought upon myself this time. Though, it was strange, I felt no pain - I actually felt perfectly fine, so I had no idea why they were keeping me here or monitoring my heart. Sure, it had stopped beating for a few minutes, but it was fine now, no reason to worry.

After what seemed like forever, but were probably just minutes, a doctor walked in; he had a very sad and serious look upon his face. I immediately knew something was really wrong, or he wouldn't look at me with such pity in his eyes.

"So, what's the verdict, doc? Am I stuck here for a few days?" I said, wrinkling my nose in disgust, I hated hospitals, though I spend half of my time in them.

"I'm afraid I had some bad news."

_'Oh, that doesn't sound good. Doesn't sound good at all.' _I thought as I looked at his pained expression; he clearly didn't want to tell me whatever it was he needed to tell me.

"Okay..." I said, not sure what else I could say, I needed him to speak first. After a few moments of awkward silence, he sighed and spoke, "Isabella-" I cut him off, "Bella," I corrected, he nodded.

"Bella, when the lightening struck you, you went into cardiac arrest. Now, we were able to bring you back by shocking you, but not without damage," he said, I was silent, I knew there was something bad coming, so I waited for him to continue.

"It seems that when the lightening struck you, it did irrevocable damage on your heart. I'm sorry to tell you that your heart will most likely give out within 24 hours," he said, and for a moment, I was stunned beyond speech. I could hardly comprehend what he told me. I was going to die? Then the panic hit me - I was normally a very calm person, but not this time.

"I-I'm going to die? In 24 hours?! C-Can't you do anything?! Can't you help me?! Please, I'm only 18 years old. I haven't even graduated high school," I begged, traitor tears falling from my eyes. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, I was going to die in 24 hours? The world really did hate me! What about Charlie? What would he do with me gone? What about me? Would it hurt a lot? I was right all along - the world _was _out to kill me, and now, it had succeeded. I might as well be dead already, it didn't matter. I only had 24 hours left; no, not even that much. If I counted from the time the lightening hit me, I only had 23 hours and 15 minutes left - it was 5 minutes to 1 am.

"I'm very sorry Bella, I can't image what must be going through your head right now. And I am deeply sorry we can't help you, I wish we could," he said, though his voice sounded far away and didn't quite seem to reach me. "Will it hurt?" I blurted out without thinking. Did I really want to know that? "No, it'll hit you very sudden, you'll go into cardiac arrest and hardly feel a thing," he answered my question. At least it wouldn't hurt much, that was a relief.

He apologized once more and left the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts. How would I tell Charlie? He would be devastated, I was all he had left. No, I wasn't going to tell him. I would tell him I loved him, one last time and then see what I'd do next. I would be better if he heard it once I had died, not a few hours beforehand.

I wasn't planning on staying in the hospital until I died, either. If I only had one day left, I would make it as good as possible, though I had no idea how to do that - I wasn't exactly your biggest party girl. There was so much I still wanted to do with my life, so much I hadn't done. I had never fallen in love - I had never been with a man - I had never gotten drunk - I never even partied. I would die as a clumsy, nerdy, virgin. That was just great!

I glanced over at the clock on the wall - it was 10 minutes past 1. As of now, I only had 23 hours to live...

**_A/N: Well, I hope you liked this first chappie and please do review and tell me what you think._**

**_Also, as of now I will recommend a story I like each time I update a story, so here's this time's recommendation:_**

_**Story: Death and Poison  
Summary: **Ed never came back in NM and Jas left because of the emotions. 50 yrs later when Vict. is about to attack the Cull's go to the Volturi for help. Aro lends them his best fighters Death and Poison. But why do D and P seem familiar?  
__**Written by: LoveBite125  
My opinion: **I like it a lot, and I think it's mysterious and Emmet is really funny, I would definitely read it if I were you.  
**Link: .net/u/1934964/LoveBite125**_


	2. Godlike angel and 23hrs left

_**A/N: Sorry it took me a while to update, but here it is and I know it's still short, but it will get longer from here on out. So, enjoy!**_

* * *

_**Be careful they say  
don't wish life away,  
now I've one day **_

_**24 by Jem**_

*******

**Chapter 2: God-like angel and 23 hours left**

I only had 23 hours left - maybe even less if the doctor's were wrong, maybe a little more - before I d-died. It was hard to think about it, so surreal. I wished this was all a dream, but those wishes were futile, this was all too real.

I got up from the hospital, changed out of the hospital gown and back into my own clothes, and left the room to go sign out at the front desk. The doctor that told me the 'bad' news headed me off before I reached the counter.

"Ms Swan, I really recommend you stay here so we can continue to monitor your condition," he said, still looking at me with pitty in his eyes - I knew I was being irrational, but it sort of annoyed me how he looked at me.

"I'm sorry doc., but as of now I have less than 23 hours to live and I want to live them in the real world, not stuck in a hospital. Can you understand that?" I said, speaking to him as if he were a 4 year old. He was bugging the living daylights out of me, or something; I thought that's how the saying went, I forgot.

"Yes, I understand. Again, my sincere appologies, Ms. Swan." I nodded and sauntered toward the front desk to sign out.

Once I had my papers in order - which caused me to loose another 10 minutes, leaving me with only 22 hours and 42 minutes to live - I walked outside - it had stopped raining - and breathed in the cool air which was oddly soothing to me now.

Just as I took another step, I slipped on the icy surface and began to fall down. I prepared myself for the painful encounter with the hard, cold ground, inwardly cussing, but the pain never came. Instead, I felt two, icy cold hands against my back - they were so cold I could feel it through my clothing, causing me to shiver - preventing me from falling down.

I opened my eyes, preparing myself to thank who-ever it was that helped me, but was stunned into silence as I found myself staring back into a pair of golden/topaz eyes, the most beautiful and unusual I had ever seen. The boy that helped me looked about my age and was an absolute god-like creature send down from heaven, in my opinion. Besides his enchanting eyes, he had the oddest colour of hair: bronze-like, untidy hair; it looked like he ran his fingers through it a lot. I also noticed that he was lanky, but not bulky, and with a lot of muscles.

Suddenly, he flashed me this stupid, crooked smile, making me want to jump him right there and then and never let him go - it was strange, I had never reacted like this towards the male population. My heart was in overdrive, which couldn't possibly be good considering it could give out at any minute. But behind his smile, I thought I detected a little bit of annoyance, probably due to the fact that he had saved me from a painful fall and all I could to was stare instead of thanking him.

"Hi," he suddenly said; his voice was like music to my ears. A sweet, velvet, angel-like voice; it made my heart flutter.

"H-hi," I managed to choke out as my cheeks began to blush a dark red; I was so pale it was always so obvious when I blushed. I had always thought that I was the palest person alive, but it seemed as if this boy was even more pale than me. It was rather odd; his cold, pale skin and topaz eyes, I had never encountered such a person like him. If you could even call him a person; he was so beautiful it was painful to look at.

"Are you alright?" He asked me in that same velvet voice, I could do nothing but nod. Finally, much against my dismay, he let go off me all too soon and set me straight so I wouldn't fall again. It seemed like only second later when 2 other, extremely pale and beautiful people, also with topaz eyes, joined my savior and me. One was a short girl with black, spiky hair, who looked like a pixie. The other was a lean, muscular boy with honey blond hair - he looked like he was in pain.

I suddenly felt rather sad, as I thought of how I wanted to get to know these seemingly unique people, but would never have the chance to, since I would be dead by the end of the day. The sadness disappeared as sudden as it came and was replaced by a sense of calmness I didn't want to feel right now. I looked toward the 3 inhumanly beautiful people who suddenly reminded me of those vampire movies I used to watch when I was a little girl. Why that was, I had no idea.

When I looked at the pixie-girl, she smiled at me, but suddenly her smile faded away and her face turned blank as her topaz eyes glazed over. The boy next to her tensed up and the boy that saved me seemed a little shocked, as if he knew what she was thinking. She snapped out of it a little while later and looked at me with a sad expression in her eyes, as if she knew I was going to die soon, but she couldn't know that, could she? The boy with the pained expression and honey blond hair looked confused and on edge as he took the pixie-girl's hand in his and rubbed soothing circles on the back of it.

I looked toward my saving angel and he seemed to be in the greatest pain of all of them; he seemed so sad, as if he had just lost someone close to him and he would never be able to recover from that loss.

I was beginning to feel rather self-consious as they continued to stare at me, all with saddened expressions, even the boy with the honey blond hair seemed to share the other two's expressions now; it was extremely weird.

"I-I need to..." I stammered, unable to finish and proceeded to walk away from them, but was stopped by a cool hand on mine. I yanked my hand away, not because of the coolness, but because of the surge of electricity I felt when it touched me. I turned around and once again found myself staring into those beautiful topaz eyes of the god-like boy who had saved me. The other two were beautiful, but he possessed the most beauty, in my opinion.

"Y-yes?" I stottered, waiting for him to say something. He said nothing, instead, he offered me his hand as the pixie-girl and the other boy looked at us with a mixture of sad and wary expressions. I didn't know why, but I took his hand, even though I didn't even know him. For all I knew, he could be a deranged serial killer, but I felt safe with him around, comforted somehow.

"W-what time is it?" I asked, I needed to know how long I had left; I had no idea how long this little encounter took, but I imagined it stripped me of some precious time - time I would never get back.

"20 past two," he said in a sad, grieving tone, as if he, too, was sad to see so much time had passed already. I nodded, oddly calm for someone in my current situation, as I realized I now only had 22 hours to live. Not even a full 22 hours, I only had 21 hours and 50 minutes to live.

The bronze-haired, angel/god-like boy started walking, dragging me along with him, away from the hospital, as we left the other two behind us. If he killed me now, I hoped he'd do it as quick as possible without much pain. Though, I didn't think he would kill me, didn't think he had it in him to inflect any harm upon me.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**_A/N: I hope you liked it and please review_**


	3. Author's Note

_**Author's Note:**_

_Hi, everyone. First of all, I want to apologize for the slow updates. I realize that you are waiting for new chapters and I am dissapointing you all. I just want to assure everyone that none of my stories are on hiatus (especially my beloved Twilight stories, but also the OTH ones and the Charmed one), I just have trouble writing for some. I also want to explain why I haven't been writing much lately._

_I just want to say that I love to write; it's my number one passsion, has been since I was a child. And lately I had been wondering; why? Why do I even write? Why do I do something that's not worth anything to anyone? But I realized I was acting stupid (which is nothing out of the ordinary for me) since it is worth something to someone; it's worth something to the people who follow and read every chapter with dedication for the story I write, which is simply heartwarming. I love all my readers and without you, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near this far with my writing. So, thank you. You'll never know how much all your support means to me._

_And I do it because I love it, it's as simple as that. I guess I had forgotten that somewhere along the way. I just needed a few reminders. I'll never stop writing and I will finish each story currently on my account._

_My main focus stories right now are:_

_Captivity  
__They'll Never Know  
__Concrete Angel_

_It's not because of the reviews they receive or something; it's just because I have them all worked out in my mind. So those will be updated the most, the rest will have slower updates but I will update them. I promise you. And I don't lie; if I make a promise, I stick to it. No matter how hard it may be sometimes._

_So, until I post again (which will be a story chapter). I hope you forgive me for my slow updates and I will work as hard as possible to update more from now on._


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author's note:**_

Hey, all. I know I promised I'd keep updating regularly and not disappear anymore, but there were things I just couldn't walk away from to write a story. My dad got sick, really sick, he almost died. He had to have this massive surgery and it was very touch and go for a while. I've been spending almost all my time with him in the hospital. He's only been home since last tuesday and he still has a lot of health problems we need to be careful off and has 3 nurses a day coming to take care of something still from the surgery. If my dad can get through this next month, through christmas and his birthday (January 1st) okay, then I'm back. If there's another setback, if he dies like they say is still a possibility due to some complications he could have, especially blood clots (he's had them before), then I don't know. I'll let you know at the beginning of January. Again, I'm very sorry, but my family is more important to me than a few stories. I love writing these stories, I do, but they're not the most important things in my life. Sometimes, you gotta set some things aside for more important things, which is what I've been doing these last months. Please bare with me for another couple of weeks, and then I'll let you know the outcome. Then I'll let you know if I'll be back or not.

Lots of love,

Lieselot.


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